MilliporeSigma has launched the next component of its BioContinuum Platform, the Bio4C Software Suite combining process control, analytics and plant-level automation. This software suite is designed to allow users to look across the entire manufacturing process, giving biomanufacturers complete process control and insights.
 
As part of an effort to get products to market faster, an emerging solution is the integration of software, automation and analytics into biomanufacturing facilities’ operations to intensify biologic production, with a vision toward connected and continuous processing. The biopharmaceutical industry is working to evolve and digitize the next generation of bioprocessing to increase speed and lower costs. Bioprocessing 4.0 signifies this new approach to manufacturing.
 
MilliporeSigma’s Bio4C Suite was designed based on the company’s “4C strategy”: – control, connect, collect and collaborate. According to the company, control is the basis of everything MilliporeSigma does to run all of its systems. Connect refers to making digital connections between different process steps and giving that visibility to the entire process. Collect is the ability to gather all data into one place and maintain and validate the integrity of that data. Collaborate is how MilliporeSigma will deliver these technologies to its customers in real-time.
 
Bio4C ProcessPad, part of the “Collect” dimension of the Bio4C Suite, is a browser-based platform that allows users to acquire, aggregate, and analyze data from disparate sources such as equipment, batch records, databases, and historians across the bioprocess. The Bio4C ProcessPad automates the data acquisition and analysis tasks.
 
The company plans to roll out further Bio4C Software Suite products and modules throughout 2020 and beyond.